Pages

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ghirardelli Intense Dark Twilight Delight

I have a feeling that just by putting the word "Twilight" in a post heading, all of a sudden I am going to get a barrage of hits from Twihards hoping for a glimpse of the Keeper of the Unicorn Forest (yes, I am a dedicated Dlisted reader).

But alas, they are bound to be disappointed, as this post is completely free of sparkly vampires...or even good vampires, for that matter. And this chocolate -- much like the Twilight Vamps as compared to, say, the True Blood vamps -- seems to lack a certain edge, even if it's technically in the same family.

Okay, maybe that was a little unfair...no, it wasn't.

Ghirardelli's Twilight Delight is a 72% cacao bar and is part of the Intense Dark collection that Ghiradelli launched a couple years ago. (You may have guessed that part from the title.) And if nothing else, it is a really beautifully molded bar. Seriously. Just look at the pictures:

Esthetically it's quite pleasing. It's as glossy as marble. The Ghirardelli logo is boldly stamped in a richly detailed bas-relief. The squares are large enough that each single square broken off on its own makes a good sized portion. There's even a nice, crisp snap when you break a piece off.

But once the snap is past and the chocolate is melting on your tongue, it's a little waxy. It seems to take forever to start to melt -- although, to be fair, once it does start to melt it is nice and smooth.

As you would expect from a 72% cacao bar, it is bitter, but not overwhelmingly so. There's a little bit of a coffee note when you first bite into the bar. As it melts it tastes fruitier. In fact, it tasted a little like cherry to me.

It's a perfectly serviceable bar. It just didn't make me bare my fangs. I could see where this would be good shaved and used as garnish. Or maybe even baked into cookies or brownies...but I can't say I would ever dig into this bar on its own. There's just absolutely nothing notable about it.

Be sure to check out both Cybele's review here, and Jim's review here. Both of them liked the bar more than I did... although neither of them mentioned vampires in their reviews, so I think I deserve cool points for that.